Nucky's world is closing in on him as things get ugly with Margaret, and Agent Van Alden unravels in a shocking scene
SPOILER ALERT: This blog is for those who are watching Boardwalk Empire on Sky Atlantic. Don't read on if you haven't seen the 11th episode ? and if you've seen more of the series, please be aware that other readers may not have done so ?
Kathy Sweeney's episode ten blog
After last week's business-focused episode, it's judgment week on Boardwalk Empire as we concentrate on personal relationships and how to end them, one way or another.
"I am what time and circumstance have made me." Jimmy Darmody
Jimmy and Angela sit in their kitchen in a state of armed neutrality. Jimmy asks what she's thinking, which is never wise. She replies that she's not sure if she was even thinking anything, code for "I'm thinking of running away to Paris with my girlfriend and your son". The tension is broken by the phone ringing. But Jimmy's end of the conversation is monosyllabic or surly: "What do you want me to do about it?" But then he tells Angela that the call was from Gillian informing him that his father is dying. Ah-ha! Finally, we know the identity of Jimmy's father: the Commodore.
Angela leaves a farewell note for Jimmy and departs for her new bohemian life in Paris with Mary Dietrich, only to discover that Mary and her husband have left town. Unfortunately, she doesn't return to her house in time to retrieve the note. Jimmy doesn't explain his plans for her ? his silent response is chilling ? but he does tell their son: "A few years, you and your old pop, we'll be keeping all hours. It'll just be us boys". Who else thinks it probably won't end well for Angela?
In fact, all the women have a rough time, living off the charity of men. Oddly enough, couples are rarely married, which is unusual for the time. Only Van Alden has a wife but prefers to whore it up rather than be with the unfortunate Rose. Gillian is a showgirl, Margaret is now a concubine, Lucy, it seems is now a prostitute, and Angela is a single mother trapped in a loveless marriage. Then there's Harding's mistress, banished to Atlantic City, and Pearl, the prostitute who had her face slashed. Vote or no vote, who'd want to be a woman in the 1920s?
You wouldn't want to be in Agent Sebso's shoes either. He's driving through the woods with Van Alden, looking for the distillery that Nucky told Sebso about to distract Van Alden from his suspicious questioning about the shooting of the witness. Lo and behold they stumble across a congregation by the river bank about to start baptismal services. After last week's sinful escapades, the guilt-wracked Van Alden must be worried about the state of his soul. More on this later.
"You have no concept of the ways that people can be close" The Commodore
Richard goes to see Jimmy at the Commodore's house. He's found some more D'Alessios to kill ? a mother, some sisters, and a dentist brother. He has no compunction about murdering them to get to the remaining D'Alessios. "That would make them stick their heads up." Richard is a total badass. It's not even that he is evil; he's just empty.
Jimmy also learns that Nucky pimped out his mother to the Commodore when she was 13 and when Nucky was still an ambitious sheriff. It seems a conflict for next season in which Jimmy will face Nucky is being set up. Bring it on! And the Commodore isn't really dying. He's actually being poisoned ? by Gillian, it seems ? and will now make a solid recovery. "The wrong man is running this town," he says ? will he act on this and try to turn Jimmy against Nucky? Does Jimmy's remark "It'll just be us boys" foreshadow this?
"Deception requires complicity, however subconscious" Hardeen
For the time being Nucky and Margaret are playing happy couples, but not for long. They are out on another double date with Harry and Annabelle, at Hardeen's show. Apparently he's not even "almost as good" as his brother, as he's been trying to escape from a strait jacket for six and a half minutes. Even the assistant looks bored as she gestures in front of the sign that says, embarrassingly, "Houdini's Brother!"
Later, at Margaret's house, the group are laughing and joking, except for Harry, who explodes, ranting that his "investment" with a guy named Charles Ponzi has ruined him. There are a lot of historically important figures cropping up in this show. Annabelle stares at him as though she wants to set fire to him. "You fat, worthless fool!" she shouts before storming out. Harry steals back the money she stole from him and kept under her floorboards ? what a delightful couple. Naturally Annabelle goes to Nucky for help.
She works up some tears and Nucky gives her $300 to see her through the summer, just as he did when Margaret first came to him. Annabelle hints at their past sexcapades, and offers to thank him the only way she knows how. Although he declines, Nucky sounds like he's thinking about it, and that is when Margaret makes her presence known. "Mr Thompson's gift is to never forget who owes him what." She's not wrong there.
Cards on the table time. Nucky tells Margaret she has accepted everything he has given her, adding, "You make a little noise every now and then to remind me what a good person you are". At last! They're actually dealing with Margaret's hypocrisy as the nice lady who accepts money and gifts and drinks champagne with a murdering bootlegger. "A good person wouldn't be here right now." Margaret wheels out the big guns and reveals Van Alden told her how husband came to be catch of the day in that fishing net. Nucky doesn't deny it but brandishes the Lysol from the bathroom, and pretty much calls her a whore. Margaret shouts that she won't be having anymore children and Nucky tells her that it isn't her right to decide that. Oh really? Oh now it's on! Margaret leaves him.
There's just time for one more fight with Eli, the Jeb Bush of his day, who is convinced that Nucky has put everyone at risk by exposing too much to Margaret. After the day he's had Nucky's not in the mood for this, and responds with a cutting remark about Houdini's brother aimed at that chip on his shoulder: "If he wasn't Houdini's brother, nobody would give a fuck." Snap! All Eli's resentment is laid bare, and oddly enough, he is actually right on this occasion. Afterwards Nucky replaces Eli with Deputy Halloran, which doesn't seem like much of an upgrade. This may have some serious repercussions for Nucky in the future ? he really needs his friends around him right now. Still, it was a long time coming, Eli is an idiot.
"Every road leads to a reckoning." Deacon Cuffy
Anyone who thought Van Alden went a bit far last week is going to be pretty shocked by this week's waterboarding histrionics. Returning to the river he forces Sebso ? who is Jewish and not buying into his hellfire and damnation rants ? into a somewhat violent baptism. Who thought he'd come round and start coughing up water? But no: he is baptised to death. Van Alden expresses no guilt at Sebso's drowning, instead proclaiming, "Thou hast fulfilled the judgment of the wicked!" Incredibly, he sees Sebso's death as his own redemption. A shocking scene, but did this take Van Alden's character out of the realm of believability? And why would Sebso agree to it ? he'd already arranged a transfer to Detroit? Incidentally, Erik Weiner, who plays Sebso recorded a viral video about his Sopranos appearance.
This series has got better with each episode; it has been like watching a sepia-tinted photograph turning to colour as the characters are fleshed out. Those who seemed one-dimensional early on now constantly surprise us. Jimmy in particular has been a revelation in his transformation from smart-guy gone bad into a monster, albeit an occasionally sympathetic one. But everything is still in flux going into the finale .
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/apr/02/boardwalk-empire-episode-by-episode
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